


There are the mountains where I lived

by orphan_account



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-15
Updated: 2010-07-15
Packaged: 2017-10-11 18:31:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/115596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Susan finds her way home again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	There are the mountains where I lived

I had a sister lovely in my sight:  
Her hair was dark, her eyes were very sombre;  
We sang together in the woods at night.

It's lonely in the country I remember.

-Trumbull Stickney, _Mnemosyne_

Early one morning in a wide field not too far from Cair Paravel, a boy waits. He waits patiently, although he is not quite sure what he is waiting for. The small birds are going about their business- a titmouse flutters here, a crow screams there- and the air is filled with the sound of birdsong, songs to rouse the sun. The wind rustles the tall grass and High King Peter waits. He woke suddenly in the small hours of the morning. He doesn't know what woke him (a lion's roar, far off), or what drew him to this broad field above Cair Paravel, but because this is Narnia, he trusts his senses and waits in the dark to find out what called him here.

He was dreaming before he awoke, dreaming of a strange world where everything was dull and dark, and the only person in his dreams was an old lady. She was sleeping in a small bed in a plain room (a small room in a big house, and her the only one there), and her pale face was turned away from the window and towards a huge cherry wardrobe. She had a face that he almost recognized, he remembers, and maybe if he had seen her eyes- but her eyes were closed, her dark eyelashes dusting her red cheeks, her withered white hands grasping the edge of her blanket. In his dream, her hands tightened on the cloth and when she opened her eyes and looked at him, she seemed just as shocked as he was-

But now the red light of the sun is touching the tips of the treetops, and the great lion comes padding out from the darkness of the woods. He gleams, refulgent with his own light. There is someone walking beside him with her hands in his mane. Peter stares for a long moment, hardly able to believe his eyes (surely he is still dreaming), but there, standing tall and slender and black-haired beside Aslan, is Susan.

He lets out a great shout of joy and grief and love- and takes off running towards the girl and the lion, heedless of the grass whipping against his legs. Susan sees him at the same moment, and then she, too, is running towards him. When they crash into each other tears are streaming down her face and she throws herself into his arms, pressing her face into his shoulder.

"Peter," she says, hiccuping a little with her tears. Her fingers twist into the fabric of his tunic.

"Susan, you came back-" he says, and he takes her face in his hands, tears slipping over his fingers, and kisses his sister on the lips. "Don't cry, please," Peter says, although he's crying a little bit himself. And then he pulls her closer, wrapping his arms around her shaking shoulders and pressing his face into the crown of her head. He can feel her heart pounding through her back, and her body presses against his own with every shuddering breath she takes. He revels in the feeling (he had forgotten how tall she was, and how dark her eyes were, but never again). They cling to each other until Aslan comes up beside them, when Susan reluctantly pulls away, looping one arm around her brother's waist and taking his other hand in her own.

"Welcome back, daughter of Eve," Aslan rumbles. "Narnia has missed you." And then he throws back his shaggy head and roars, and it seems he calls the sun up (and with Aslan, you never really know) so that Cair Paravel glitters in the light. Susan sighs and leans into Peter. He presses a kiss into her hair.

"I won't leave again," Susan says, "it was horrid, not having you with me."

Peter pulls her up onto his mare, and touches her arm where it's wrapped around his waist. "No," he says. "I won't let you leave, Susan. You won't ever have to." Aslan is with them when they leave the field as the sun crests the top the the trees, and go to find Edmund and Lucy and Narnia.


End file.
